To Tame a MonkeyKing
by Victoria Hughes
Summary: [discontinued] How it all began. After Sanzou released Goku from his prison, it started a wild chain of events: Saiyuki. What happened before Gojo and Hakkai, though?
1. Rescue

To Tame a Monkey-King

**By Vikki**

Disclaimer:  Not mine.  Wish it was.  Whaddaya know, don't we all?

Flame policy:  Ken Hidaka is a friend of mine.  'Nuff said.

Author's all-important notes:  This is the result of BOREDOM.  It should not be construed as anything else.  It is sure to be full of mistakes about the release of Son Goku.  I don't care.  Don't review just to tell me that I obviously have no clue what I'm talking about.  I do not claim to be an expert; this is my own take from looking at the manga and drawing what I could from my limited knowledge of Japanese.

But, anyway, have fun!

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Chapter 1: Release 

Genjou Sanzou was annoyed.

Granted, Genjou Sanzou was often annoyed.  Many things in life annoyed him.  Being called 'Sanzou-sama' was one of them – his pet peeve, really.  He was also annoyed by excessive noise and stupid youkai.

He decided that standing at the bottom of the impressive set of stairs before him was only slightly less annoying than being called 'Sanzou-sama' – mostly because he had to climb that impressive set of stairs.

Unfortunately, no one had ever thought to create a Levitation Sutra.  If anyone had, Sanzou would have killed to obtain that Sutra.  Especially right then.

Instead he sighed, considered the fact that the gods were awfully sadistic creatures, and began the climb.

//On the Five-Fingered Mountain, you will find the One who Sinned against Heaven.  He awaits the end of his punishment; he awaits you.//

Indeed, the Five-Fingered Mountain was an impressive tower of earth.  To obtain its summit was to touch the feet of the gods, or so it was believed.  Sanzou's aim was far less lofty; halfway up the mountain was a prison, where a demon who had long ago sinned against the gods was locked away.  No lore spoke of the horrible sin; Sanzou himself was unenlightened, and he was second only to the gods in the world of Buddhism.  Nonetheless, he had been instructed to release the youkai from its jail; its 500-year-long sentence would expire at sunset that very day.

Sanzou had already spent the last two days on winding trails leading to the base of the stairs he now climbed.  Cut into the sheer rock face, the stairs were not crude, but they were narrow and steep – and incredibly long.  If anyone had bothered to build a city on the mountain, they never would have needed to fear an attack; this stairway was the only true access to the higher levels of the mountain, and no invading army would have been able to create a charge strong enough to sustain itself all the way up the stairs!  This thought caused Sanzou to again reflect that the gods were very, very sadistic.  Wondering vaguely whether it was possible to kill a god, and pondering an even more vague notion of what sort of divine punishment could be contrived for such thoughts, Sanzou sat on the narrow steps and paused for lunch.

As he opened his bento box to reveal the pleasant yields from his earlier stop at an inn, Sanzou considered his mission.  Ultimately, Sanzou's mission was to obtain a lost Sutra and return it to its rightful place.  Almost as an afterthought, one of the gods (okay, so she preferred to be called a goddess, but it didn't actually matter – she was a hermaphrodite, after all) had ordered him to the top of this mountain to end the long imprisonment of the youkai.  She had given no other details, and Sanzou, never one to pry, had asked no questions.

However, that did not mean that he accepted everything at face value.  There was certainly some hidden reason for the gods to choose him, specifically, to release the demon.  If only he could figure out what!

He finished his lunch quickly and resumed the climb.  The sun, now high over his head, beat down mercilessly; Sanzou removed his customary diadem from his head and hid it in his sleeves.  He would replace it when he arrived at his destination.  It was always best to use custom to its fullest when dealing with the gods.  The only times Sanzou made a point of being uncustomary was during minor dealings with local monks – revenge for calling him 'Sanzou-sama'.  Really, they deserved it.

Finally he neared the summit of the stairs; the cage holding the youkai was not readily visible, but it was not far from the stairway, if Sanzou had correctly read the scrolls.  The sun was about to set.  Evening shadows lengthened, stretching his form before him.  And at last, Sanzou put his foot on the top step of the stairs.

Pausing for a long moment to appreciate flat ground, Sanzou finally freed his diadem again and settled it into place on the crown of his head.  His golden hair glinted in the orange sunlight, and his fierce violet eyes reflected his general annoyance at having to climb the stairway.  His legs ached, but Sanzou's pride kept him from sitting and relaxing for even a moment.  Instead, he loosened his gun as a precaution, readied his Sutras to perform the release spell or a binding spell (as needed, he thought cynically), and approached the jail.

Nothing had prepared him for what he saw, and it managed to shock him out of his annoyance and into a sort of ambivalent indifference.

The demon was not the fierce, angry, intelligent creature he had imagined.  Instead, a boy with brown hair that was miraculously still cropped short at the top and hung to his waist elsewhere stared up at him with huge brown eyes, shocked and a touch frightened.  He was already of a slender build, but also impossibly thin; it looked as if he had not eaten in years, and given that the gods were perfectly capable of keeping this being alive without sustenance, he probably _hadn't_ eaten for over 500 years.  His legs were folded up under him; he wore a black shirt tight to his skin and ragged pants.  A chain ran from a ring around his neck to the wall, and another that bound both his wrist and his ankle was attached to an iron ball.  Yet another restraint was less obvious, but to Sanzou's experienced eyes, it was apparent that the golden circlet situated over his forehead was a restraint on his youkai-related power.  Ofuda were plastered everywhere; even if the boy had managed to break his chains without his full youkai-strength, he wasn't going anywhere without paying a possibly deadly price.

Sanzou spoke a word of command, and the ofuda on the 'bars' of the prison evaporated.  He stepped forward, and much to his surprise, the youkai recoiled, shuffling away.  Suppressing his initial reaction – anger at his ungratefulness – he softened his expression.  "Come with me," he said, holding out a hand.  "It's time to leave."

The demon stared at Sanzou, then his hand.  Then, slowly, he reached out to the monk.

The sun set.  The 500-year-long imprisonment ended.  The chains on the youkai's small form obediently broke – and the demon set his small hand, long fingernails in need of a cut, into Sanzou's own.

It was the beginning of two destinies.

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Reviews are **always** good … hint, hint, hint.  ^^x

Preview next chapter:  Genky Goku goodness.  Sanzou gets pissed; Goku discovers grass; the Nyoibou is discussed.


	2. Names

To Tame a Monkey-King

By Vikki

Disclaimer:  I don't own it.  Please don't sue.  Money doesn't make the world go 'round. 

Flame policy:  As I'm very cold right now, I'll just use flames to keep warm.  Don't bother.

Notes:  Again, don't talk to me about accuracy.  When it comes to this fic, I just don't care enough to do anything about it.  In this chapter there is a bit of OOCness on Goku's part – he eats slowly and actually shuts up a few times.  The only way I know to explain it is that Goku is still adjusting to Sanzou.  After all, he seems so familiar with the priest in the actual series, so he must be comfortable (and pleasantly oblivious) to talk to Sanzou so blithely.

Finally, I failed to follow up on my promises at the end of the first chapter.  Sorry – I'll get around to those parts next time.  I swear it.

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Chapter 2: Names 

They spent the night on the mountain, as Sanzou was none-too-inclined to use those infernal stairs more than once in a day.  As it turned out, it was just as well – the child youkai stumbled about as if he had not made use of his legs in a good long while.  Not that it was a surprise.  Movement may very well have caused the ofuda to burn him.  In any case, the tottering child needed help simply stepping outside of his cage for the first time in 500 years.  He had staggered around for a while that evening, taking in everything with his huge brown eyes, entirely mute to the best of Sanzou's knowledge.

_//Hmph.  Maybe the gods cut out his tongue.//_  Sanzou wasn't fond of the idea of dragging around a noisy little kid, but he didn't hold out much hope for a lasting silence.

The evening had worn on, and the weather this high up was pretty chilly, Sanzou was forced to admit.  More or less from force of habit (when Sanzou was around other people, they were usually deferring to him anyway), Sanzou ordered the child to collect some firewood – if there was any to be found.  And, much to Sanzou's amazement, the boy unquestioningly swayed to his feet and went looking for firewood.  He returned not much later with an armful of dead brush.  Sanzou had lit a fire in short order, and to make the weak fuel last longer, he blessed it with a Sutra.  In his opinion, if the gods didn't like his use of the Sutra, then they gave it to the wrong person.  Sanzou was not inclined to care overmuch what they thought of most anything.

After the fire was stoked and Sanzou, not particularly hungry and hearing no immediate complaints from the youkai, had lain down to sleep, the pleasant silence was finally broken.

"What's your name?"

Sanzou turned over in his blanket and looked at the boy.  His brown eyes were focused intently on the priest, head cocked questioningly.  He currently had his legs crossed and was gripping his ankles with those small hands.  Sanzou took this in and asked diffidently, "Why do you ask?"  He really wasn't in the mood for a question and answer session.

"Because …" The boy faltered as Sanzou had expected.  His bewildered expression might have been endearing to someone else.  To Sanzou it was merely an opening.

With a tiny self-satisfied smile the priest rolled back over and shut his eyes.  "Don't ask me questions without a reason, got it?"

"Oh."  A moment more of blessed silence.  "Mr. Person Who Saved Me, I'm hungry.  Can we eat?"

_//Mr. Person Who Saved Me!?//_  It was worse than 'Sanzou-sama'!  Sitting up irritably, Sanzou glared at the youth.  "Don't call me that!" he snapped. 

The youkai reared back and looked up at him with the same amazed, anxious look he had worn in the dungeon.  Sanzou felt sour.  _Time to lay down a few ground rules_.  "My name is Genjou Sanzou.  Call me Sanzou – not 'Sanzou-san', or 'Sanzou-sama', or I'll kill you.  It looks like I've been unlucky enough to be saddled by the gods with a snotty-nosed kid, so you might as well call me something that's not annoying, since you'll probably be driving me crazy the rest of the time."

Judging from the youkai's face, most of what he had just said went right over the boy's head.  That was just as well.  Untouched, Sanzou moved on.  "You want food?  There's a bento box in that bag over there," Sanzou pointed.  "You can eat what's in that.  Eat anything else and die.  That's our only food until we get down off this mountain, and if there's only food enough for one, it'll be because you already ate your own share.

"Finally, I'm trying to sleep.  I don't know if you slept in that jail at all, kid, but I also don't really care.  Sleep is important to me, so don't bother me when I'm sleeping, unless you're interested in being strangled before I even wake up.  Any questions?"

The sharp speech had the desired effect.  The youkai child, wide-eyed and more than a touch intimidated, simply nodded before obediently crossing to the bag containing the bento box, removing that food source and that food source only, and began to eat slowly as if savoring every bite.

Sanzou watched warily, then indifferently, and finally he muttered, "Go to sleep when you're done," before he promptly fell asleep himself.

The next morning Sanzou awoke to the bright morning sun and the sleeping form of the youkai, who had somehow managed to sprawl himself over an area apparent of six feet square.  He had a childish smile pasted to his face and drooled a little; his brown hair was a sheet under his tiny form.  Much to Sanzou's delight, the boy had apparently obeyed his food limitations; only one bento box was empty, and it was fastidiously cleaned, as if the boy had actually licked the box clean of any remaining rice.

Then again, given the savoring way he had consumed his food, it was entirely possible that the boy _had_ licked the box clean.

As Sanzou packed quickly for the return trip, enjoying the lack of noise except for an occasional snore from the sleeping youkai, he considered the fact that he had given the boy three direct orders – to collect firewood, to eat the contents of only one bento box, and to go to sleep when he was done eating.  The last one may have been an accident – the child may merely have collapsed in some sort of delirium after eating – but the first two orders were obviously carefully followed.

At this point Sanzou dropped the train of thought.  He barely knew anything about the youkai, so he could derive only very little from these observations.  At that point Sanzou realized that he didn't even know the youkai's name.  Deciding that it could be very hard to get along without knowing the boy's name, he yanked the blanket the boy was lying on out from under him.  "Oi, wake up!" he growled.

The youkai yelped, waking up even as he hit the ground, and immediately scrambled to his feet, rubbing his abused tailbone.  "Itai …" he moaned.

Sanzou cut straight to the point.  "What's your name?"

The boy looked earnestly at him for a moment and cradled his chin in his hand, frowning in obvious thought.  Sanzou was tempted to groan – the boy didn't have a name and was going to make one up.  It would probably be a ridiculous name that he would insist on being called, and Sanzou would have to pound him into the ground before he settled on some nickname –

"Son Goku."  Sanzou, shaken from his wild and cynical daydream, looked up from the ground at the boy, who was now grinning madly.  "My name is Son Goku, and I'm a monkey-demon."

Sanzou felt something deep inside him shift, somehow, at the imperious name.  It was most certainly not made up.  //_Those gods again.  Messing around with destiny behind my back, not telling me about it, and leaving me to pick up after them.  They really* **are*** sadistic.//_  "Well, then, you stupid monkey-youkai, let's get cracking.  We have a long downhill stairway ahead, and if you get on my nerves too much, I may be inclined to not let you live to the bottom."

The insults seemed to fly right over Goku's head, and the boy just grinned some more before abruptly sobering.  "Sanzou-sa – I mean, Sanzou, I'm hungry!  Can I have something to eat?  That bento was good, but it wasn't very much food!"

_//That was a huge bento box!//  _Exasperated, Sanzou answered bluntly, "No," and turned towards the stairway.  "Come on."

"But I'm hunnnnnngryyyyyyyy!" the boy whined.

"Shush, or I'll kill you."

"But –"

"No buts!"  Sanzou gave him his best Don't Piss Me Off glare, and Goku squirmed.  "Now, because you were so especially whiny, you get to carry the bag.  Aren't you happy now?"  Sanzou dumped the relatively heavy satchel on the boy's shoulder; Goku staggered under the sudden weight, but ended up shouldering it with relative ease and followed Sanzou like a loyal puppy, silent for the moment.  Sanzou noted from his ease that the gold circlet on Goku's head had sealed not all of his youkai-strength.  He also noted that Goku was already calling him 'Sanzou' – that brought the total of explicitly followed instructions to four.

And now there was that strange inner shift that he had felt at Goku's name.  Frowning, and studiously ignoring the occasional grunts and mumblings from Goku's direction, Sanzou led the way down the steep steps of the Five-Fingered Mountain.


End file.
